Revenge of the Hackers

Eric Steven Raymond

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this document under the terms of the Open Publication License,
version 2.0.

$Date: 2002/08/02 09:02:15 $

Revision History

Revision 1.9

26 August 2000

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DocBook conversion.

Revision 1.8

31 Aug 1999

esr

This version went into the first printed edition.

Abstract

The eruption of open-source software into the mainstream in 1998 was
the revenge of the hackers after 20 years of marginalization. I
found myself semi-accidentally cast as chief rabble-rouser and
propagandist. In this essay, I describe the tumultuous year that
followed, focusing on the media stategy and language we used to break
through to the Fortune 500. I finish with a look at where the trend
curves are going.

Revenge of the Hackers

I wrote the first version of A Brief History of
Hackerdom in 1996 as a web resource. I had been
fascinated by hacker culture as a culture for
many years, since long before I edited the first edition of
The New Hacker's Dictionary in 1990. By late
1993, many people (including myself) had come to think of me as the
hacker culture's tribal historian and resident ethnographer. I was
comfortable in that role.

At that time, I had not the faintest idea that my amateur
anthropologizing could itself become a significant catalyst for
change. I think nobody was more surprised than I when that happened.
But the consequences of that surprise are still reverberating through
the hacker culture and the technology and business worlds
today.

In this essay, I'll recapitulate from my personal point of view the
events that immediately led up to the January 1998 ``shot heard 'round
the world'' of the open-source revolution. I'll reflect on the
remarkable distance we've come since. Then I will tentatively offer
some projections into the future.